Announcing Kaspersky Free Anti-Virus

[Brink]

Hi folks!

I’ve some fantastic, earth-shattering-saving news: we’re announcing the global launch of Kaspersky Free, which, as you may have guessed by the title, is completely free-of-charge! Oh my giveaway!



We’ve been working on this release for a good year-and-a-half, with pilot versions in a few regions, research, analysis, tweaks and the rest of it, and out of all which we deduced the following:

• The free antivirus won’t be competing with our paid-for versions. In our paid-for versions there are many extra features, like: Parental Control, Online Payment Protection, and Secure Connection (VPN), which easily justify the ~$50 for premium protection.
• There are a lot of users who don’t have the ~$50 to spend on premium protection; therefore, they install traditional freebies (which have more holes than Swiss cheese for malware to slip through) or they even rely on Windows Defender (ye gods!).
• An increase in the number of installations of Kaspersky Free will positively affect the quality of protection of all users, since the big-data-bases will have more numbers to work with to better hone the machine learning.

And based on those three deductions we realized we had to do one thing, and fast: roll out a KL freebie all over the planet!

Last year the product successfully piloted in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China, and also in the Nordic countries (that’s Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, in case you were wondering). I say successfully… – that would be an understatement; for with practically zero promo activity Kaspersky Free was installed several million times, in doing so cranking up our market share considerably. Not that increasing market share is our aim; our aim is to raise the overall level of protection on the Internet. Anyway, here’s thanks to all KasperskyFree users for helping us save the world!

And on July 25 – for our 20th birthday – the product will start being officially launched!

The roll-out won’t be fully global instantaneously; it’s going to be done over four months in waves as per different regions. The first wave will be the U.S.A., Canada, and many of the Asia Pacific countries. September: India, Hong Kong, Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Latin America. October: Europe, Japan and South Korea. November: Vietnam and Thailand. And that, I do believe, will be it – the whole planet covered.



Briefly about the product…

It’s a version with all the bare essentials: file, email and web antivirus; automatic updates, self-defense; quarantine; and so on. This arsenal ensures convenient and safe web surfing (is it still surfing? Sounds a bit 90s to me), working with USB sticks and other portable storage media, and protection against both phishing and infected files being run. In short, the indispensable basics that no one on the planet should do without.



Kaspersky Free is also lighter on system resources and quicker than its big brothers. It’s based on the same technologies as those older brothers, which you all know always come out on top in independent testing. This means that, though it features just the bare basics, it still packs a punch – a punch we’re no less proud of. The same protection without compromise: we detect any cyberthreat regardless of its origin or intention – even if certain folks don’t like it. At the same time Kaspersky Free doesn’t come cut with all the usual nonsense like advertising-oriented user-habit tracking and confidentiality infringements – which free AV normally suffers badly from in order to make it financially worthwhile to its manufacturers.

Question? Comments? Suggestions? Let me know – below.

PS: We have plenty of other free utilities, you know; have a look – here!

Source: KL AV for Free. Secure the Whole World Will Be. | Nota Bene: Eugene Kasperskys Official Blog


Download: https://www.kaspersky.com/downloads/thank-you/free-antivirus-download

 

[Brink]

 

[TechnoMage2016]

I was stopped COLD at "Continue". Clicking it got me to another screen with another Green "Continue" button, which did absolutely Nothing. Eh?

I'd really like to try their FREE AV software.

 

[Sky Ranch]

Kaspersky offering free AV can't be a good sign for a software company that is at the top of their industry. Sounds like decreased profits are forcing them to take drastic measures in order to compete with the smaller companies that have always offered a free version in addition to the paid, premium version. Wonder if Norton, McCafee, and other companies that offer only trials will follow suit.

 

[michael diemer]

Kind of excited about it. I used to use them. They consistently rank at or near the top in tests. Will definitely give this a try.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Considering how the Russians have been hacking into the computers of other countries, etc., I wouldn't put it past them to force Kaspersky to create a backdoor in their software. Kaspersky has an excellent reputation; the Russians do not.

For more on this, read here: http://www.npr.org/sections/paralle...sts-a-suspicious-eye-on-russias-kaspersky-lab

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Well, after several tries, I finally got the installation file.
When I tried to install it, it wanted to delete "Spybot Search & Destroy" which I've had for years, and run along side Avast, AVG and Windows Defender. DANG!

OK, so I let it delete SS&D and then it logged some kind of unknown error and refused to install. DANG!

Finally I just did a System Restore to blow off any leftovers, and called it a day.

I didn't really Want Russian software on my PC anyway. :sarc:

Cheers Mates!

 

[jsc145]

Wow, I can't believe people would try this for free given issues with the election and Russian hacking. Just shows what people will do for something free. I wouldn't trust this software for a moment.

 

[TechnoMage2016]

Most PC users are just 'Appliance Operators', then there are enthusiasts, nerds, Geeks, and PC Engineers.

I currently have 20 computers, all running Microsoft OS's, ranging form XP to 10/64. I'm constantly downloading and experimenting with various software and OS's. It was my vocation years ago, but now it's all just my hobby. It keeps me out of the pool halls.

But if the FREE Kaspersky AV software works as poorly as it installs, I'd certainly NOT want any part of it.
OK, I tried it once, but never again. That was not a really serious try anyway.....just for fun!

AVG was a great FREE AV program years ago, but now it's just not worth the effort. They have trimmed it down to almost nothing.

Happy Computing, Mates!

 

[OvenMaster]

Considering that Avira Free's end of support for Windows 7 is January 13, 2018(?!)(2 years short of 7's M$ end-of-life date)
Avira Product Lifecycle
I will be more than happy to give Kaspersky free a try after that date.

 

[michael diemer]

Well, I decided to take the plunge into the Volga. I have run paid Kaspersky in the past and liked it. Install was easy, if a bit lengthy. Authorization was quick as my old account was still intact. Just logged in and got authorized. Did a quick scan, nothing found. It wanted to remove MSE during install, which I opted against. I disabled MSE after it was up and running. You get the virtual keyboard, which I used to use now and then. Stops key-loggers. Also, it has Kaspersky Secure Connect, which allows you to connect to the internet anonymously.

As for trusting a company from Russia, well I had no issues with the paid version. And Kaspersky is not the Russian government. That's a whole different animal (a bear, I believe). The Gov. is a dictatorship. Kaspersky is just one of many competing AV providers. In fact, I'd probably trust Kaspersky at least as much as I trust Microsoft. (Actually, considering that Microsoft is a monopoly, I might need to reconsider that).

So far, the only thing I have noticed is that Windows is running better. Firefox is faster. Could be a coincidence, but I'll take it. I'm hardly on Windows anyway, so there's not much risk involved. Spend most of my time these days on Zorin 12 Lite. Fastest OS I have ever used.

Edit: Just started up Windows 7 for the first time since installing Kaspersky Free. Unfortunately. it is running pretty slowly, seems all gunked-up. don't know it's attributable to Kaspersky. I'll have to give it more time. If this is new normal for this machine, I'll uninstall it.

Edit 2: I remembered that I also installed an add-on, Privacy Badger, yesterday, and that could be what is slowing things down. Will have to uninstall to see if that is the case.

 

[Jody Thornton]

Edit: Just started up Windows 7 for the first time since installing Kaspersky Free. Unfortunately. it is running pretty slowly, seems all gunked-up. don't know it's attributable to Kaspersky. I'll have to give it more time. If this is new normal for this machine, I'll uninstall it.

Edit 2: I remembered that I also installed an add-on, Privacy Badger, yesterday, and that could be what is slowing things down. Will have to uninstall to see if that is the case.

So what's the update?

 

[michael diemer]

Well, Firefox continues to open slowly, took at least a minute. I changed some settings on Kaspersky and will restart to see if problem continues. I should note that I have the Privacy Badger on Zorin, and it does not cause any problems. In general, Zorin is faster than Windows 7 HP. I only go on Windows rarely on this computer, so maybe that too has something to do with it. On my music computer I have W7 Pro, which is very fast. I keep it offline by default and run MSE.

Edit: Forgot to report that yesterday I disabled Kaspersky and enabled MSE. Things were still slow. This of course could be due to any number of things. Often the monthly update solves it. I do the Security Only one. I'll be doing that soon, so hopefully I'll have a better sense of things then.

 

[michael diemer]

I just downloaded Slimjet browser, which bills itself as the fastest browser in the world. It opens instantly. so the problem must be with Firefox. IE explorer opens a bit faster than Firefox, but neither is anywhere close to Slimjet. Don't know much about this browser yet, except that it's open sourced and based on chromium. So, Kaspersky may not have been the problem after all.

 

[jsc145]

Amazing what people will do for a free item. The AV is an important software component of your pc. Why skimp on it? Especially with the deals that are available. I've recently purchased a 3 year license for Eset Nod32 for like $20 from an official retailer. This amounts to about $6.66 a year. I just can't imagine using any Russian software after all of the recent issues that have occurred with the election.